To hear Donald Trump cry “Fire and fury!” is to think the U.S. is about to erase North Korea from the face of the Earth -- the horror of a nuclear conflagration be damned.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Trump, his puffy face all red, told reporters between rounds of golf at his club in Bedminster, N.J. He had just interrupted his 17-day vacation long enough to, well, play macho and push the world closer to war. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

With his ridiculous war rhetoric Trump was confirming once again he has no clue about the responsibilities of his position or the value of diplomacy to resolve conflicts and avoid the use of force. This man, elected president despite receiving three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton, was making even clearer that those who voted for him cannot hide from their responsibility for delivering the White House to an ignorant, dangerous and mediocre individual of questionable morals. Nothing to be proud of, wouldn’t you say?

Just one day after Trump’s inflammatory remarks, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, was singing a different, saner tune.

“I think Americans should sleep well at night, have no concerns about this particular rhetoric of the last few days,” Tillerson, who was returning from Asia, declared in Guam, the island that North Korea threatened with a retaliatory attack. “Nothing I have seen and nothing I know of would indicate that the situation has dramatically changed in the last 24 hours.”

In any case it’s not easy to sleep well at night knowing that someone as utterly ignorant as Trump has his finger on the nuclear trigger, even if after his insane words Tillerson’s statement sounds like good news. Yet, the secretary admits not much has changed and, as a consequence, the problem remains as intractable as ever -- and as volatile.

Somehow, I have the feeling that South Koreans, who would pay a horrific price if war ever broke out, are not great fans of the man in the White House.

Hopefully no war will ever break out in the Korean peninsula, despite de president’s deranged boasting -- and that’s great. But Trump and his attack Chihuahua – namely attorney general Jeff Sessions – are waging another merciless war, blind to its consequences to human life and to the nation’s soul.

It is the kind of abuse of power that makes cowards feel brave, an attack against immigrant children, against their parents, against millions of honest men and women whose only crime is to work hard, want a better life for their families, and contribute to make the U.S. a better, more compassionate country.

Fire and fury to Trump and all those racists, misogynists and exploiters he has empowered.